Our Family Portrait

This fine album by the Five Stairsteps would have been better if they hadn't included everybody in their family on the project. The original five Burke siblings display their classic harmonies and crying leads on a well-rounded selection of songs. "Something's Missing," "Bad News," "Find Me," and "You Make Me So Mad" are all excellent tales of unrequited young love. Sister Aloha co-leads Hal David and Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" with brother Clarence Jr., and does a beautiful job; the backing harmonies boomerang around the leads and embellish the exquisite song. A good remake of Jimmy Charles' "A Million to One" rounds up the good stuff. Now for the mediocre: "Momma and Poppa Stairsteps" (Betty Burke and Clarence Sr.) each lead a song. Clarence Sr. does an archaic version of "I Remember You" (the old classic from the '40s) in classic '40s style. This is not what buyers and fans of the Stairsteps expected to find on a contemporary album. Betty Burke harkens back to the '40s also, with an easy listening rendition of "Windows of the World." The two would have been better off doing an album together, sans their children. The Burke parents both possessed quality voices; they just sang in an old style. Cubie's "New Dance Craze" is a joke; having a four- or five-year-old babbling over a bubblegum musical track does not a song make.